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Merpel was immediately struck by the byline "The interview was produced by New Scientist in conjunction with the European Patent Office, which paid for it to be produced." Need the EPO be paying for publication about the career path of an Examiner in order to attract suitable candidates?

Merpel wonders what readers think about the article itself, and whether the EPO should be paying for placement of such pieces.

36 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I had expected rather better than this from the New Scientist, a magazine for which hitherto I have always had the highest respect. Tip for anyone thinking of applying to be an EPO Examiner: you might find more information of interest and relevance to your future employment on FOSS patents, the Ipkat and other blogs than you will from going to epo.org/espacenet.

I wonder what other organisations the New Scientist can be paid to promote?

I sleep all night, I work all day, to pay the bills I have to payAin't too badAnd when they’re paid there’s still a sizeable amount that’s left for meMakes me glad! In my dreams I have a planTo become a wealthy manI check on patents filed by all, I fool around and have a ball...

Money, money, moneyReally funnyIn this rich man's worldMoney, money, moneyAlways sunnyIn this rich man's worldAha-ahaaaAll the things I can do‘Cos I have a lot of moneyIn this rich man's world!

The perks we have are hard to find, to them I’m totally resignedAin't no fad!We’re paying no ones income tax, the atmosphere’s pretty relaxedGreat launch-padFor a future in IPAs a well-paid patent attorneyAnd make a fortune in that game, my life will never be the same...

Money, money, moneyReally funnyIn this rich man's worldMoney, money, moneyAlways sunnyIn this rich man's worldAha-ahaaaAll the things I can do‘Cos I have a lot of moneyIn this rich man's world!

But in this ointment there’s a fly, that’s known to all and sundry by Benny Batt!He’s trying to end Elysium by introducing his kingdomAutocrat!Thinks he’s got je ne sais quoiBut in truth it is L’état, c’est moiSuspending members of the Board, that has the whole of Europe floored

Money, money, moneyNot so funnyIn this rich man's worldMoney, money, moneyThings are gummyIn this rich man's worldAha-ahaaaAll the things I can’t doIn this gilded cage of of moneyIn this rich man's world!

"The interview was produced by New Scientist in conjunction with the European Patent Office, which paid for it to be produced."Giving interviews clearly belongs to "activities outside our normal operational business in DG1" in VP1´s definition. So it is only fair to pay a bonus for it.

I want top quality Examiners at the EPO. I see far too few with English as their first language. they are below-quota, aren't they? I don't want DG1 to be populated with people with poor technical knowledge and weak analytical skills, who get the job because, first, they can perform after a fashion in French and German and, sacond, because there ain't anybody applying who is any better than them.

Loving the lyrics to the new EPO anthem, very funny. Lap it up whilst you can - make hay whilst the sun shines. It can't last much longer.

I constantly ask the attorneys how they are advising clients on the the new Unified Patent - all the people I have asked say they are advising clients to opt out (and of course opting in will depend on the fee structure - any news on that yet?). This will lead to political pressure to get people to use the new system. Ryan Air politics will ensue and I see a large opt out fee being levied to gently persuade people to use the UP. This will lead many to abandon the EPO altogether and resort to national application instead. And so, in giant lead for Europe we take a step back in time 35 years! Well done everyone!

Oh my, it's some kind of normal PR, isn't it? If they asked a patent attorney, would you expect to read how many overhours he is forced to make and that the pay isn't that good in regards the workload? Or if they'd ask a schientist in company XY's labs, would you expect to read how dragging the lab-work can be and how uninspiring it may be to perform the n-th iteration of some test just to learn after one year that the project is cancelled?

Any connection with the EPO having a new Director of Recruitment and Talent Management?

Congrats on the EPO being 44th (equal) out of 150 in Germany when 1100 or so young engineers (aged under 40) were asked to name the top 5 companies they wanted to work for from a list of 150. Admittedly 1.69% actually meant only 19 or so but nevertheless... Wonder how many they would have got elsewhere...

Further questions:Is it appropriate for the EPO's President to spend 1.5 millions Euros for marketing patents in the CNN TV program "ask Quest";Is it appriopriate for the EPO to organize every year the event "Inventor of the year" which also costs a few millions? Is it reasonable to select about 15 inventions out of the many and declare them the best of the year? Shouldn't the office remain above the parties and see all inventions as "equal"?

Long ago, before the Battistellian era, the EPO used to perform a Human Capital Survey. A way to take the company's temperature. To the question "would you advise a friend to join the EPO", I always answered YES. Under BB, this healthy habit disappeared since "we know what they will answer".To friends and newcomers I give now the same advise:"stay away from the EPO as much as you can, as long as you can". Signing with Mephistopheles assured Faust of a brillant life and the hell afterwards.Signing with BB guaranties a hell of a professional life and no life at all after retirement.

From the NewScientist:"it's possible to be employed on a three-year contract, which becomes permanent once you have acquired sufficient skills in the third language."An acquaintance of mine was hired on contract by the EPO some years back and spoke only English. A clause of her contract specified that she had six months to master both French and German.However, her supervisor told her not to worry: whatever she managed to learn in those six months would be deemed sufficient.In other words, English s-only speakers do apply, if that is your cup of tea. If they like you, they will keep you after three years, even if you have only learned six words of German and\or French in the meantime ... but beware if they don't like you, because you will never attain what is considered an acceptable level, and out you will go.

Anon 1019, Mmm. So the way to express your worry is to try to discredit all examiners? And why do you even assume the earlier comment was from an examiner? That comment apparently had identified a fact and corrected an earlier incorrect suggestion. I don't know if she was still an examiner when interviewed - maybe it was recent or old? Who knows? Nobody has suggested she had misled anyone as far as I read above. Perhaps it just is an ironic event without deeper significance? Play the ball, not the man?

Except the comment above wasn't an accusation that someone was an examiner but a criticism of the comments that examiners and their kindred spirits have been making. Unless you deny that examiners have been lambasting the president and everything he does and everyone associated with him?

It is such a bland out down to dismiss a comment in such a way because it does not champion the cause of those disgruntled ********* at the EPO (******* is not a rude word, but I can't think of a way of referring to examiners without using the word examiners).

As for the "you only say THAT because...", I haven't seen it used that way.

And finally,

can we have less of the usage of 'ad hominem' in italics or otherwise on this blog. If everyone wants to use latin then we should write the whole comment in it.

"we do our best, in the knowledge that there is always more to be done and that much of what we do can be done better by others."

Well said.

But perhaps it is worth pointing out that the present mess at the EPO would never have arisen if those "others" had in fact done that which they allegedly can do much better but which they unfortunately seem to have omitted to do presumably on the lazy pretext that it was "Somebody Else's Job".

The EPO has in the last year stopped respecting the EPC, and the production pressure generates the profits.

The brave new ISO certified EPO has invented a wanderfull tool of CASE to record the quality. The point of CASE is to allow just the chairman to discuss the case with the first examiner if he questions the proposed grant, and the second member does not even get informed that only part of the Examining Division is discusing the case.

Forget the Art. 18(2) and the Guidelines. The second member is there only for formal check and should not sacrifice his time for any substantive issues...

But there is the chance for rapid promotion as long as you aren't examining. The Belgian VP1 has just promoted to Principal Director a Belgian member of his office. Nice. A3 to A4 in 2010. A4 to A5 in 2012 and now A5 to A6.

Meanwhile Le French Pres has promoted a French member of his office to Head of Office. Which must make for easier times in the HR head's household since the new Head of Office is her husband. Cosy. Not sure which other head of an international organisation manages to find two senior members of his team in the one family. Conflicts of interest anyone?

Ms Smith-Hewitt is an examiner at the European Patent Office (www.epo.org), and an experienced chairperson of oral proceedings in both examination and opposition phases.She is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (www.icheme.org).

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